Absolute gem who faces another major step in his development tomorrow at a wild Anfield in the biggest club game on the planet. Proper mad that our best midfielder is an inexperienced kid barely turned 18. Watching Utd against Barcelona the other week, the one player he screams of stylistically is Busquets. If he has a smidgeon of the career that all time great has had, both ourselves and Spain will be exceptionally blessed.
Talking of Utd, provided we take care of our own business tomorrow avvy, this has been a great Sat'day with Newcastle's return to normality continuing and Tottenham being Tottenham.
Stefan Bajcetic was standing in a corridor near the tunnel at Anfield late on Wednesday evening, exhausted and bearing the battle scars of victory. A white sock
www.thetimes.co.uk
Stefan Bajcetic: Klopp tells me to show my confidence – he likes my intensity
The 18-year-old midfielder has had a breakthrough season at Liverpool but is still living in digs and coming to terms with his new star status
Paul Joyce, Northern Football Correspondent
Friday March 03 2023, 5.00pm, The Times
Stefan Bajcetic was standing in a corridor near the tunnel at Anfield late on Wednesday evening, exhausted and bearing the battle scars of victory.
A white sock, visible under his right slider, was stained red by the blood drawn from the kicks the Spanish teenager received to his ankle during the win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. The glitz and glamour of the Premier League this was not.
For Bajcetic, however, that is very much the way of things. From the outside looking in, the expectation might have been that the midfielder’s emergence at Liverpool would immediately be accompanied by the trappings of stardom.
Yet when he eventually headed home, it was to the digs in which he has resided since signing from Celta Vigo in December 2020 rather than a plush bachelor pad. Away from the pitch, he retains a level of anonymity out of kilter with the promise evident in his performances.
“Do I get recognised? Not a lot, to be fair,” he says. “Sometimes it happens and it will be a ‘hi’ then a high five. I’m not really getting recognised that much just now. When I go out, I put a hat on!
“I think at the minute people know more my name than my face. Maybe when they see me, they know of me but they don’t recognise me.
“I live with house parents. I turned 18 five months ago and, before that, you cannot live alone. You have to go to house parents. Mum and Dad work. Will they be here [for the Manchester United game]? Probably not.”
The visit of Erik ten Hag’s side on Sunday will particularly resonate with Bajcetic. After all, he could have featured in the opposition ranks; United’s interest in signing him at the age of 16 is well documented.
Liverpool had been tipped off by their Spanish scout Kiko Espinar and, according to Bajcetic’s father, Srdan, pushed through the deal to prevent the teenager moving to a rival.
As well as United, Real Madrid, RB Leipzig, Wolves and Everton had all chased Bajcetic, and Liverpool’s head of senior academy recruitment, Matt Newbury, led the way in sealing a transfer worth an initial £225,000.
With Brexit looming, and a change in the rules that would have prevented clubs from signing overseas players under the age of 18, a private jet was sent to bring Bajcetic, his mother and brother to Liverpool and to save time with paperwork before the deadline.
Covid-19 protocols then meant he spent six months away from his family and, given he spoke little English at the time (he is now fluent thanks to intensive lessons at the academy), that he thrived in that environment offers an insight into his humble personality.
It was, however, the decision of the Liverpool Under-18 coach Marc Bridge-Wilkinson to move him from centre back to central midfield that has accelerated Bajcetic’s progress, ensuring he caught the eye of Jürgen Klopp and now the Spain national team, who could fast-track him into their senior set-up. Bajcetic is also eligible for Serbia through his father, who is a coach at Celta C-Gran Peña.
For someone so young, it has been Bajcetic’s reading of the game and his ability to break up play and circulate possession that have given him an opportunity he has gleefully seized. However the midfield shake-up plays out in the summer, he will have a role.
“I’m just trying to help the team and at the same time, I’m trying to learn as well. I need to keep working hard.
“I want to stay here [in the team]. I’m smiling because I wasn’t expecting it to happen this quick or this early in my life. But I am taking it — 100 per cent, I’m taking it!
“He [Klopp] sees me every day in training and he tells me to show my confidence. He likes my intensity, I think. He wants me to be intense but calm with the ball.”
It is not just Klopp who is taken with Bajcetic. His poise was shown in the victory over Wolves when his goalkeeper, Alisson, pinged a difficult, knee-high pass to him, but Bajcetic still managed to turn away from Wolves’ João Moutinho and Pablo Sarabia on the edge of his own area.
Earlier, a recovery run and challenge which unceremoniously halted Matheus Nunes in his tracks carried shades of Steven Gerrard. Both instances drew thunderous applause from the stands.
“I lost the ball and, when I do that, I try to win it back as fast as I can. I run and I run,” he says. “When I lose the ball, I have to react as soon as I can.”
Still, the best barometer of his level is highlighted by the trust earned from his team-mates. That their fathers were team-mates at Celta in the 1990s meant there was already a link with Thiago Alcântara, who took him under his wing.
But it is a reminder of the standing ovation he received upon returning to the dressing room after scoring in the 3-1 win over Aston Villa on Boxing Day that leaves Bajcetic almost embarrassed.
“Yes, yes,” he replies sheepishly. “That’s right. They were so happy for me. It’s the same for everyone. If a new player scores, there is always a nice feeling for him and everyone supports you. It was good.
“It is always nice when these big players trust you. They give you the ball. When they are in a tough situation on the pitch, they look for you to help. They will give me the ball in a situation that is tough for me, but they believe in me.
“It gives me a lot of confidence, definitely. They are massive players. If they trust me, then it makes me feel tall. It makes me feel good, like I am a better player.
Since I came here, since I trained that first day, I have always talked to him [Thiago]. I’m Spanish, so I wanted to speak and he has been helping me a lot. He has been massive for me, to give me confidence. He introduced me to the other players and I am learning a lot from his game. It is all so good.”
The other education he has received proved more chastening.
It came at the hands of the 37-year-old Luka Modric and Real Madrid during the Spanish side’s 5-2 Champions League victory at Anfield last week, when every minor error appeared to be punished. In the long run, the experience can be crucial to his continued development.
“You played against one of the best midfielders in the last decade and of course you learn from them,” Bajcetic says.
The experience from a big game is important too. Modric was special. He is so very calm with the ball, he doesn’t feel pressure.
“If you press him, he knows everything that is around him. That impressed me a lot. Hopefully, one day, I can be close to him, but I don’t know!”
And so on to United, and a battle that will pit him against another of Europe’s elder statesmen in Casemiro. It is a fixture that will test Liverpool’s top-four aspirations against revitalised opponents, though Bajcetic is sure his decision to pick Merseyside over Manchester has proved the right one.
“It’s the English Clasico, no? It’s a massive game,” Bajcetic says.
“I’m at Liverpool now, I’m just focusing on that and I don’t want to talk about other clubs. But, yes, when I heard that Liverpool wanted to sign me, there was nobody else to decide on. This was the only one.”
